Dreams Unwind
by EeveeNicks
Summary: The sequel to "Seven Wonders". Queen Zelda and her knight/lover Samus Aran are adjusting to life in Hyrule now that Zelda has assumed the throne. But there is now the issue of keeping their forbidden relationship a secret, and disaster strikes when a witch from another world appears demanding the return of a stolen treasure. But will this witch end up being a foe or an ally?
1. Ch 1: Like a Cat in the Dark

**Author's Note:** Hello, everyone. I didn't think I'd do it, but I ended up starting a sequel to "Seven Wonders", my Samus/Zelda lesbian romance adventure. Well, I hope you enjoyed that one, because this story, "Dreams Unwind" takes place a few months after where "Seven Wonders" left off. If you haven't yet read that story, I highly recommend it before going into this one.

A little bit of background, I know there were a few things that were left a little open ended at the end of "Seven Wonders", and this story will address some of those things, in addition to things you probably weren't even wondering about. Timeline-wise, Both stories take place after Ocarina of Time in the Zelda-verse. In the Metroid-verse, "Seven Wonders" took place after Metroid Prime 2, and this story takes place after Metroid Prime 3.

I've also recently played a game called "Bayonetta", and yes, you guessed who will be making her debut in this series! "Dreams Unwind" takes place not long after the events of Bayonetta 1. I haven't played Bayonetta 2 yet, so I don't actually know anything about it (no spoilers please!)

And of course, Pikachu will be in this story. So please, enjoy the first chapter of "Dreams Unwind".

 **Chapter 1: Like a Cat in the Dark**

"Any luck?" Samus asked as she strode up to Zelda's desk and laid her hand on the Queen's shoulder.

With a jolt like the Lady Knight had sent an electric shock through her body, Zelda sprung up in her seat, breathe racing and eyes wide as she looked up at Samus. "I-I told you—don't startle me like that when I'm working!"

"I'm sorry." Samus frowned as she withdrew her hand from the Queen's shoulder. The tall blonde woman was quiet and pensive for a moment as she looked down at what her partner had been working on. Just as it had been for the last several months, the mysterious crystal stone they had come to refer to as the "Eighth Wonder" sat upon her desk surrounded by various scrolls and books that Queen Zelda had already scoured a dozen times over looking for answers.

Zelda just shook her head and looked back at the crystal. "I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's not your fault… I just get so focused I lose track of what's around me sometimes…"

She was still wearing her traditional Queen's attire, a long red dress with an intricately embroidered sash that bore the Triforce and other symbols of Hyrule. Only the dress was heavily wrinkled and her usually perfect long brown hair was disheveled and falling out of its braids in the places where it was braided. There were dark circles under her eyes, and even her long pointed ears seemed to droop a little as she sat and sighed, just staring at the crystal.

"I take it you haven't made anymore progress in figuring out exactly what to do with this thing?" Samus asked, once more placing a hand on Zelda's shoulder but with much more care not to disturb her this time.

Samus was a very large muscular woman, and while her Knight's uniform matched her Queen's garb in color and symbol, it was very much a man's outfit. The heavy red tunic stretched tight over her breasts, which also bore an embroidered golden Triforce. She wore a pair of tan trousers, black gloves, and black boots that went up to nearly her knees. Her hair was pulled into a low ponytail that rested on the back of her neck. At her side she carried both an ornate knight's sword in a hilt as well as her handgun in its holster because as much as she gave in to Hylian tradition and customs, she still valued the practicality of her world's weapons.

And even Queen Zelda appreciated Lady Samus's practicality, particularly since she had changed around a few laws and bent tradition in order to make the otherworldly woman her personal appointed knight.

Though of all the traditions they had broken, appointing a woman from space was the one of the few least likely to fill Hyrule with scandalous murmuring.

Samus took Zelda by the hand and helped the sleepy queen to her feet. Her legs must have fallen asleep because she wobbled slightly as Samus pulled her into a tight embrace and warm, passionate kiss.

"You know it doesn't serve you well to burn the candle from both ends, my Love," the knight said as she looked down into Zelda's eyes and ran a hand through her long brown hair. "You have so many other obligations to your kingdom, and you need your sleep."

Zelda stared languidly up at the knight and part-time bounty hunter, thankful to have her with her now as opposed to away on one of her space-faring journeys. It had only been a week since Samus had returned from a particularly nasty mission that had nearly killed the hunter and ended with her blowing up a radioactive planet called "Phaaze." Zelda didn't know the details of what had happened on that mission, only that Samus had gotten very sick from something called phazon, and now she wore heavy leather gloves to hide the marks it had left on her right hand and forearm.

At any rate, the knight had not returned to space since then, choosing instead to spend every waking moment protecting her Queen. And every sleeping moment curled up in bed beside her. Zelda had known a lot of truly loyal subjects over the years, but never had anyone been as attached to her as Samus was. When she wasn't off on one of her missions, that was.

Samus kissed her Queen once more and lifted her up into her arms. She held Zelda bridal-style as she carried her from the study and into the royal bedroom. It was a large, round room with gilded furniture throughout, and a king-sized bed with an ornate golden headboard and footboard engraved with the Triforce and symbols of Hyrule. Above the bed hung a large golden Triforce, each of its triangles containing either a sapphire, a ruby, or an emerald to honor the three goddesses who had created the world.

As they approached the bed, Samus playfully dropped her Queen, who bounced onto the soft red velvet blankets and rolled to the side to allow the Lady Knight to crawl onto the bed beside her. Samus wasted no time as she did so, pulling herself close to her lover and running a hand through Zelda's hair, slowly undoing each of the messy braids and combing it through her fingers.

Zelda rolled around to face her knight as they lay side by side. She traced the Triforce on Samus's chest as she smiled sleepily at her.

"What did I do to deserve you?" The Queen asked as she closed her eyes and nestled her head into Samus's muscular arm. "Of all the planets in the universe you could have visited that day, somehow you ended up on mine…"

"Funny," Samus said as she placed a gentle kiss on Zelda's forehead. "I often find myself wondering the same thing. Except I'm pretty sure I'm the lucky one here. I didn't even have a home of my own before I found you."

Samus continued to stroke the Queen's hair with her gloved hand as Zelda closed her eyes and rested against her chest. Zelda's breathing slowed, and her body relaxed, guided by Samus's touch. Zelda may have been a very powerful mage, but there was something about the strong woman's protective embrace that always made her feel safer and completely at ease. She loved the slightly musky and leathery smell of Samus when she wore the knight's uniform, particularly the way it mingled with the soft scent of the woman's skin.

From the way her body lay so limp, Samus was certain Zelda had drifted to sleep, but the moment didn't last long. Within minutess, there was a loud banging on the door to the Queen's chambers, and Zelda all but jumped out of her skin at the sound. She and Samus both sat straight up, the Queen so shocked she was almost shaking, as both of them knew their tender moment had come to an end.

"Queen Zelda!" the voice of one of the male knights called through the heavy wooden double doors. "Your presence is urgently needed in the royal court!"

Zelda groaned and frowned as she looked over to Samus. The knight just shook her head.

"You need to go, Love." She stood and straightened her tunic, making sure her low ponytail was as neat as it could be.

The Queen sighed, standing up and casting her magic over her own body to change her outfit from the wrinkled mess she had been wearing into a much neater and refreshed version of the royal gown. As she cast her magic over her hair, the small braids magically redid themselves on either side of her face and tied themselves back up in the white ribbons.

"How do I look?" she asked Samus, giving a little twirl despite the look of exhaustion on her face.

"Like you could use a good sleep and a more competent Royal Court, but otherwise, you look stunning as always."

Zelda smiled as Samus strode over to her and kissed her on the forehead.

"I love you," the Queen said to her knight as she pressed herself up against the woman's chest one last time.

"I love you, too," Samus replied, taking her in her firm embrace and giving her an affectionate squeeze before pulling away.

Neither of them had to say anything. They knew that as soon as the door to the Queen's chambers opened, they'd have to cease all signs of affection toward one another. There were already a great many rules Zelda had bent to get Samus to be her appointed knight, and there were some things for which Hyrule was just not yet ready. A Queen in love with her knight would be scandal enough, but a Queen in love with a woman would be far worse.

So they turned toward the door and dropped all semblance of being lovers, Zelda setting her face to the commanding look befitting a monarch and Samus defaulting to the stoic gaze she wore while hunting. The Queen led the way as the knight followed close behind her and just off to her right as they opened the great wooden doors and stepped out into the gray stone hallways of Hyrule Castle.

"Quickly, Queen Zelda," the male knight said after a hasty bow to her. "We haven't much time. The Royal Court is up in arms about a disturbance, the likes of which we have not seen since Ganon's demise."

Zelda could feel her hair standing on end as a shiver ran up her spine at the mention of the dark lord. It had been months since she, Link, and Samus had sealed him in the Temple of Time, but the vivid images of him still haunted her memories, particularly of the moment when he had killed her father right in front of her and then reanimated the corpse to attack them.

She didn't let anyone see how much the mention of Ganon's name had shaken her though as she continued on toward the newly rebuilt Hall of the Royal Court. It had quickly become her least favorite room in the castle, although it was hardly one she could avoid given her position. The old one had been destroyed in the battle against Ganon, and the new one had been rebuilt almost identical to the old one. Visiting it always kicked up those unpleasant memories.

She knew that Samus would hold her or squeeze her hand if she could, but the knight was just as bound as she was not to show any affection in front of the Royal Court. While a few people like Impa and Link knew of their relationship, they were in no way ready to have any of the uptight Nobles find out, not when Zelda's seat on the throne was still so new anyway.

Loud nervous chatter gave way to hushed silence as Zelda, Samus, and the other knight entered the room. The man quickly hurried over to rejoin his fellow men in their posts guarding the entrances, and that left the Queen and Samus alone to face a Great Hall full of anxious Nobles.

"Queen Zelda," a Hylian nobleman with long white hair said as he stood and looked to the Queen. "We are so thankful you are able to join us. We need your guidance. There has been a disturbance in Hyrule."

Zelda kept her face neutral as she regarded the nobleman dressed in his long green coat. It had expensive golden embroidery that was far flashier than needed, an obvious sign he just wanted to fault his wealth. "And what sort of disturbance are we talking about? Natural or supernatural?"

"Supernatural," came a deep female voice from the back of the Great Hall, and everyone turned to see Impa walking up the center aisle as she regarded the Queen with her deep red eyes. She had on her traditional Sheikah outfit, her long white hair pulled into a high ponytail. "I've never seen anything like it before, but it seems there is a witch in Hyrule. She's been terrorizing various villages, demanding to know the location of what she believes to be an artifact stolen from her world and brought here."

Zelda was silent for a moment as she processed what Impa was saying. After Samus and Link, Impa was her most trusted companion and had been with her since she was a little girl. She believed her word over that of any of the people who sat on the so-called Royal Court.

"And you're certain she's a witch?" Zelda asked. "Did she come alone?"

Impa shook her head. "There's another one with her, a blonde I'm assuming is also of her same kind. I saw them with my own eyes down at the Kakariko Village this morning. Their powers are unbelievable, far different from any magic we've known. And what's more, they seem to also possess similar projectile weaponry to what Lady Samus brought with her from her world."

There was a hushed murmur throughout the room at the mention of Samus's technology. While the Nobles generally paid the bounty hunter little mind when she was present, any talk of where the knight had originally come from brought excited speculation and fodder for local gossip.

"So you're saying," Zelda said slowly, still trying to wrap her mind around the concept, "that Hyrule is being terrorized by a pair of witches looking for some kind of stolen artifact? And these aren't just your run-of-the-mill magic witches… they're witches with _guns_?"

Impa nodded. "Yes, my Queen."

Zelda glanced over her shoulder to Samus, but the knight just gave a confused shrug. She didn't seem to have any better of an idea of what was going on than Zelda did. They had visited worlds that had magic, and they had visited worlds that fought with firearms, but never had they met anyone else who used a combination of both.

Before either of them could say anything, however, there was a clap of thunder and the room went pitch black for a second as the nervous chatter resumed amongst the Nobles. But the darkness didn't last long. In the center of the aisle, directly between Impa and Queen Zelda, a bright purple circle of light formed suddenly, all sorts of symbols and shapes outlined within it. And as it faded, a woman appeared, standing just where the purple circle of light had been.

She was a tall, slender woman with long thin legs and a tight black outfit that drew attention to her feminine assets. Her long dark hair was pulled into some kind of tall tower on top of her head, tied up in red ribbons. Her skin was almost unnaturally pale as she stared down at Queen Zelda through a pair of ornate black glasses set with blue and purple stones.

In each hand she carried a pistol, and she held one of them pointed directly between the Queen's eyes.

"I've been told you're the one I need to talk to around here," the witch said in her deep, seductive voice. "I believe you have something that was taken from my world, and I'm here to get it—"

But she never got to finish her sentence as a missile flew directly into her chest, exploding upon impact as Samus, fully armored in her powersuit, threw herself between the witch and the Queen. She didn't care how powerful the mysterious woman was; the knight was not about to let anyone harm her Queen for any reason. Even if it would mean a fight to the death.


	2. Ch 2: She is the Darkness

**Author's Note:** I'm so happy to see there's been such a positive response to my unplanned Seven Wonders sequel. I won't say much about what I have planned for it, but I will say a good part of the inspiration came from a few nights ago when I was driving in my car, looking out at the full moon and belting along to Stevie Nicks' "Rhiannon" live performance from 2005 on the "Crystal Visions" album.

So if "Seven Wonders" was the song that served as the inspiration for... well... "Seven Wonders," then "Rhiannon" is definitely the song that served as the inspiration for "Dreams Unwind."

 **Chapter 2: She is the Darkness**

Samus threw herself between Queen Zelda and the witch as her missile exploded on the woman's chest, but even as that happened, the slender witch seemed to backflip through the smoke and away from the worst of the blast. She moved with an inhuman speed as she pointed her guns at Samus and fired a barrage of shots.

The bullets weren't hard for the bounty hunter to take, however, and her golden armor absorbed them easily, barely losing any shielding at all. Figuring the missiles might be too slow, Samus switched to her plasma beam and fired back with her own series of shots. They burned through the bullets, forcing the dark haired woman back and putting her on the defense as she had to jump and flip every which way to avoid being hit. Samus knew she couldn't keep it up forever though; there were too many members of the Royal Court still in the room, and she had to be very careful about where her plasma shots went.

She charged up another burst and was about to fire at her opponent when all of a sudden the witch seemed to spawn a pair of beautiful butterfly wings out of thin air and used them to propel herself toward the high ceiling. She returned a volley of bullet fire, spraying them out of the pistols in each hand but also strangely enough out of a pair of pistols on her shoes. Samus abandoned her offensive stance and turned back to her Queen, throwing herself over Zelda and using her body as a shield to protect her from the erratic bullet barrage.

It felt like a rain of white hot fire on her back as the bullets hit, and when they slowed down she turned back to fire her own weapon at the witch. But a massive purple and black fist appeared out of nowhere and punched Samus with a remarkable force, throwing her away from her Queen.

"AVAVAGO!" the witch shouted suddenly, and Samus turned to see a truly bizarre sight. It was as though the dark-haired woman's clothes had stripped themselves from her body and began to circle around her like a tornado made out of her long black hair.

Samus had no idea what was going on, but she could see the witch's hair glowing red and purple as a portal began to form similar to the one the witch had first stepped through when she had appeared. The bounty hunter didn't know what was coming out of the portal, but she knew what the source of its power was, and before the witch could finish her summons, Samus released the fully charged plasma shot she had been holding.

It exploded on contact with the witch's naked body, burning away the hair that connected her to the portal, and as the connection was severed, the portal's light dimmed and faded completely. Samus didn't miss a beat, following up her plasma with a steady stream of missiles at the witch before finally combining her missiles and a charged wave beam. She unleashed the wavebuster attack as it formed a powerful stream of electricity straight from her arm cannon and to the witch, temporarily paralyzing her.

It looked like Samus was about to finish off her opponent when the dark haired witch disappeared suddenly, and before the bounty hunter had time to figure out what was happening, a massive panther pounced on her from behind, throwing her face first into the ground. The panther rolled her onto her back and attempted to bite into the softer part of her armor where her helmet met her neck, but Samus stopped the infernal feline by thrusting her left forearm into its mouth instead.

The panther bit down hard, its fangs releasing a sort of corrosive dark magic as it did so, and it began to burn away at the armor on Samus's wrist. Adrenaline pumping, the knight bashed the panther in the face with her arm cannon, sending it backwards off of her. As Samus got to her feet, she watched as the panther reverted back to the form of the witch, now fully clothed, and she readied her missile launcher to go another round with the wicked woman.

But she never got the chance. As soon as the witch shot at her and Samus returned fire with her missiles, a wall of light appeared between them suddenly, causing both attacks to explode harmlessly against it and leaving both combatants unscathed.

"STOP!" Queen Zelda yelled in her most commanding voice as she glared at the two combatants, her eyes glowing blue and the Triforce of Wisdom on her hand lighting up bright enough for the whole Court to see. "I will not let another battle bring down the walls of this castle! Not here, not in this Hall of my Royal Court!"

Samus was a bit taken back by the Queen's intervention, but the witch seemed almost amused by it. Using the nose of one pistol to adjust her glasses, she casually sashayed toward the Queen, and Samus realized for the first time that she was actually wearing a pair of high-heeled boots, but the heels were literally just another set of pistols strapped to the back of her boots.

"As you wish, Your Majesty," she said in an almost mocking tone as she regarded Zelda. She seemed completely unfazed by Samus standing there watching with her arm cannon still pointed at the witch's heart. "Although, I think it's a bit late for civility at this point…"

"Who are you?" Zelda demanded, and Samus could see from the corner of her eye that the Nobles of the Court were practically falling all over each other trying to evacuate as both the witch and the knight were distracted. "What do you want?"

"I want what was stolen from me," she replied with a level of nonchalance that Samus found downright unnerving. "Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot just now, but you can hardly blame me for getting a bit aggressive… particularly considering you were the one who started it."

Zelda raised an eyebrow, matching the witch's flippant demeanor with her own calm stoicism. "I don't know what you're talking about. What was stolen from you, and why do you think anyone from Hyrule is to blame for its absence?"

The witch flicked one of her pistols casually and Samus could feel herself tensing at the action, barely holding herself back from firing another missile at the woman.

"You may want to get a better handle on your servant there," the witch said with a glance toward Samus. "Seems a bit more trigger-happy than would be helpful to you. Although certainly kudos on finding such an effective warrior to serve as your knight. That little sparring match was great fun and gave me a bit of a rush."

She winked at Samus, and the hunter could feel herself turning red beneath her visor.

"You still haven't explained what you're after," Zelda said, not allowing herself to be distracted by the witch's banter. "So I'll ask you again. Who are you, and what do you want?"

"Hmm… I've a couple of different names, but you can call me Bayonetta, as I really don't think you'll find my other name suits this meeting. As for what I want, I already told you. I want the artifact that was stolen from my world several months ago. A man bearing that symbol—" she used her pistol to gesture toward the glowing Triforce on Zelda's hand, "stole it from us while my partner and I were distracted by our battle against the Creator Jubileus. And we want it back."

Samus could tell by the look on Zelda's face that she knew exactly who the man had been who had stolen the artifact from Bayonetta's world several months ago, and the memories of him were the one thing that could shake the monarch's calm exterior.

"Ganondorf," Samus said so her lover wouldn't have to. "Let me guess… he came with some sort of grayish purple dragon and stole an orb of some sort. It was purple and possessed a sort of shadow power."

Zelda's eyes widened as she looked up at Samus, shocked that the hunter had been able to put two and two together before she did.

"Very good, Sir Knight," Bayonetta said as she turned her attention to Samus and sauntered over with her oddly seductive walk. "Although the fact that you know precisely what was stolen from me hardly speaks to your innocence."

"The Wonder of Shadow," Samus continued, "was stolen from you by a dark wizard named Ganondorf and a dragon called Ridley, both of whom are dead now."

"Really?" the witch asked, tilting her head with subtle amusement. "And I suppose you're about to tell me you're the one who killed them as if that will somehow help you to gain my favor? Although to be fair, you'd be right about that… it's always useful when someone saves me the trouble of having to dispatch enemies myself and given the way the rest of those bumbling idiots practically fell over each other trying to escape from this room, I'd gather you're one of very few competent warriors in this world at all…"

Samus didn't say anything as she regarded Bayonetta. She didn't know what to make of the strange woman, and she couldn't help but wonder what she had been trying to summon when she had shouted that incantation in her strange language.

"So that begs the question now," Bayonetta continued, "what have you done with my Wonder of Shadow?"

"Er…" Samus wasn't sure how to answer that question. On one hand, the truth might be a very helpful explanation, but on the other hand she didn't entirely understand what had happened to it and didn't know if she should be giving that kind of information to a witch. "We did a thing with all the other Wonders and the three triangles and it just kind of… disappeared?"

"Hm?" Bayonetta raised her eyebrows as she stared at Samus. "You have no idea what actually happened to it during the ritual, do you?"

"Not in the slightest."

"We united all of the Seven Wonders," Zelda cut in, and Samus was thankful for it because her knowledge of any kind of magic was spotty at best, "and we used them to open the path to the Rainbow's End. A sort bridge from one world into another. I have a feeling you understand what I'm talking about…"

Bayonetta smiled as she looked down at the Queen. "I'm intrigued."

"You came from some kind of purple light portal," Zelda continued, "and you tried to summon something while you were fighting Samus, something from another world or another plane of existence, yes?"

"Clever girl… you catch on quickly." Bayonetta rolled her shoulders and shrugged. "Yes. Before I was so rudely interrupted by your knight with the fire cannon, I was summoning a little pet of mine named Gomorrah."

"I'm assuming by 'pet' you mean some nasty thing I'd rather not have in my castle." Zelda frowned. "I'm sorry that Ganondorf stole your treasure. I don't know what purpose it served in your world, but hopefully you won't be too bad off without it."

"Funny thing," Bayonetta said, using one of her pistols to flick some dust off her arm, "I don't know what the damn thing was supposed to do either. Jeanne was the one who insisted we needed it back. I'd much rather get back home and go about my usual business instead of hanging out at this alien Renaissance festival."

Samus huffed in annoyance, and the other two women turned to look at the armored bounty hunter, her face obscured behind the green visor. "For something you don't even want, you were sure quick to point a gun at Queen Zelda's head for it."

"Oh… that." Bayonetta sighed and sauntered over to where Samus stood, still rigidly on guard and pointing her cannon at the witch's heart. "I suppose I do get carried away making an entrance sometimes. But you seem well acquainted with this 'Ganondorf' and by the way you just can't keep your gun off of me, I'd say you'd have an even more extreme reaction to anyone you thought was associated with him."

She casually pushed Samus's cannon to the side and stood toe to toe with the bounty hunter, having to look up in an attempt to make any semblance of eye contact with the hunter's six-and-a-half foot frame.

Samus just stared down at her, not bothering for once to point the cannon at her again. Something told her that despite the battle they had just fought, the witch really had no intention of trying to harm her for the time being.

"Keep you guns pointed away from Queen Zelda," Samus said in her deep, distorted voice, "and I'll let you live. But if I catch you even thinking about harming so much as a hair on her head, I don't care what world you are from, witch, I will kill you. I have killed much worse creatures than you, and I won't hesitate."

"Ooo, scary," Bayonetta said, placing one of her guns back in its holster and pulling a little green lollipop out of her cleavage. She sucked on it for a moment before turning back to Zelda. "I take it Sir Knight here really fancies you." Then she glanced over to Samus again. "Or perhaps Lady Knight… or neither of the above. I won't presume to know how you identify yourself." She looked back toward Zelda again. "Either way, the knight fancies you."

"Noted," Zelda replied coldly, her lips set into a thin line.

Bayonetta sucked on her lollipop and smiled innocently. "How sweet. You like them back. No wonder you're so defensive about it. Don't worry… I'm not going to tell anyone."

"Since your treasure is gone," Samus said, feeling her face turning red and her skin prickling beneath the suit, "are you going to leave now? Crawl back into hell or whatever dimension you slithered out of?"

"Is that what you would prefer?" the witch asked, not seeming particularly invested in Samus's answer as she licked her lollipop some more.

"No, please stay!" Zelda said suddenly, much to Samus's surprise. "You've obviously come a long way, and Ganondorf took something from you. The least we can do is try to make it up to you somehow now that your treasure is gone."

Samus crossed her arms and bit her tongue. She didn't like the idea of Bayonetta and the still-to-be-seen second witch hanging around in Hyrule any long than they needed to, but she knew why Zelda would want them around. Her research on the Eighth Wonder they had collected from the other dimension had been tireless and borderline obsessive since Samus had gotten back from her mission to Phaaze. If Bayonetta knew anything about traveling between worlds or the sorts of powers from the relics therein, Zelda would want her to stay. And Samus didn't like it.

"Call off the other witch," Samus barked before anyone else had a chance to say anything. "The Nobles in this Court said there was a pair of witches terrorizing the people of Hyrule, probably trying to find Queen Zelda or your treasure or whatever… call her off and bring her to us. The Queen may wish for you to stay in Hyrule, but as her appointed knight it's my job to make sure nothing happens to this kingdom, and that includes alien witches with weirdly sexy gun shoes."

"Hmm…" Bayonetta finished her lollipop and flicked the empty stick away. "As you wish. I'll call off Jeanne, although I think 'terrorizing' is a strong word for what we were doing to the folks around here. I much prefer to think of it as a stylized interrogation…"

Samus was still frowning beneath her helmet. "Just go. Get this 'John' or whoever and bring her back here."

Bayonetta smiled and half chuckled as she looked at Samus. "Don't worry, Knight. Your little Queen is very pretty, but she's not my type, I'm afraid. I'll not steal her from you."

"Go…" Samus's face was beet red beneath the visor and she was thankful she had left it completely opaque.

As you wish, Bayonetta said, suddenly thrusting out one of her long legs and spinning as a circle of purple light formed around her. And then, just as she had mysteriously appeared, she vanished, and Samus and Zelda were left alone once more.

"What the hell was that?" Samus said as she stared into the empty Great Hall.

Zelda went to her side and gently took her left arm. "I don't know. But I have a feeling she could be very helpful to us."

For once, Samus remained stiff even at her lover's touch, and she didn't bother to deactivate her armor as she stood staring at where Bayonetta had been only moments before.

"I don't like it," the bounty hunter said. "I don't understand her powers, and I don't trust her. She doesn't belong in a place like Hyrule, and I don't trust her to keep her word."

"I don't think she's going to harm anyone, Samus. I really think she's going to call off Jeanne and—"

"That's not what I meant." Samus looked down at Zelda. "I don't want her spreading it around that we're… together."

Zelda just nodded. "I know, Love. But I think we have some plausible deniability there. I think the people of Hyrule will believe their Queen over a random witch if I deny it."

Samus didn't say anything. She knew Zelda would be able to crush any rumors about the two of them being a couple if she chose to. The Queen had a way with her subjects. The real problem was that Samus didn't want her to. The few occasions when they had traveled together to Daiban and the other Federation planets had been very enjoyable for Samus, and a large part of it was because they didn't have to lie or hide their relationship. It wasn't unusual at all to see two women or two men together in Samus's world, but Hyrule wasn't truly Samus's world, and every now and then something like this would remind her of that fact.

"You were right about one thing though," Zelda said, taking Samus's hand and looking up at her sheepishly.

"And what's that?"

"Well, those shoes of hers… with the guns on them. I don't know why, but they were kind of weirdly sexy…"

Samus laughed and it felt like an instant relief from the pressure that had been building in her chest. "I'll keep that in mind and try to see about getting a pair of gun heels myself one of these days if you like them so much…"

"Mm… I don't know. You have enough guns. Maybe rocket heels than make you jump even higher than you do now. That seems much more practical."

The knight chuckled and rolled her eyes as she deactivated her armor and took both of Zelda's hands in hers. "There is nothing practical about rocket heels, Love."

The Queen smiled and stood on her tiptoes to kiss Samus's cheek. "Perhaps not in battle, but that's not where I'm suggesting you wear them…"

Samus grinned and felt like an idiot as she caught Zelda's meaning. Then she bent down and kissed the Queen's forehead. "I'll make a note of that."

"Good…"

Then Samus's face turned serious once more. "You really feel strongly about allowing these witches to stay in Hyrule?"

Zelda nodded, her expression sober once more. "I do. I know you don't understand magic or get feelings from it, but I sense something. I feel like they're supposed to be here and that their presence can do some good. I can't explain it. I just know it, and I need you to trust me."

She looked down at the black leather gloves that covered Samus's hands, and the knight knew she was picturing what was beneath those gloves, the scars of her most recent mission. Zelda held her hands so gently, sad that she was not able to touch them directly.

"I don't want anything like this to happen again, Samus," she whispered as she stared at the bounty hunter's hands. "You were gone for so long and I had no way of knowing if you were dead or alive, and then the condition you came back to me in… that's not happening again."


	3. Ch 3: Her Lover

**Author's Note:** Hello everyone! I hope you're enjoying this installment so far. I just want to take a moment and thank everyone who read an reviewed. As always, I really appreciate it.

I recently played through Bayonetta 2 for the first time, and while this story still take place before Bayo 2, I think I'll end up drawing inspiration from some of the themes. It was an excellent game. And just a quick warning that there are spoilers for Bayo 1 in this story, but the same can be said of the Metroid series and the Legend of Zelda.

Anyway, hope everyone has a good weekend! Enjoy!

 **Chapter 3: Her Lover**

"So let me get this straight," Samus said as she looked at the red and white ball in her hand and then over back to Pikachu, "you're supposed to live in this?"

"Pika pika." The Pokémon nodded as he looked up at her. They were standing in the training grounds just outside the castle walls. There were a few other knights off in the distance doing their own thing, but no one was paying any mind to the bounty hunter and the Pokémon.

"So I'm supposed to use this thing more than once?" She bent over and picked up a hardcover book she had left open on the ground a few minutes earlier. She began leafing through it and skimming over the pages she had already read. "I know I used it once already when I 'caught' you and made you 'my' Pokémon, but are you really supposed to live in this tiny little thing? That's like… normal?"

"Pika." Pikachu nodded again, trying to be patient with his new trainer. Considering she had no prior knowledge of how anything Pokémon related worked, he thought she was doing a decent job.

"This just feels ethically questionable," Samus said, closing the book and letting it drop to the ground. "I keep you closed up in this tiny little ball and only let you out when I want to make you fight?"

"Pi…" Pikachu grimaced at her wording. "Pika-pikachu. Pika. Ka-Chu!"

"It just seems wrong to me to keep you shoved in a ball. What if I drop it and it rolls under some furniture or something and I lose it and you get trapped forever?"

"Pi-pika…." Pikachu sighed, and placed his palm on his forehead in exasperation.

"It just seems so unnatural to fit an entire being in this tiny little sphere."

"Piiiiiiiii—" He glared at her.

"Okay fine. Yes," Samus huffed, crossing her arms as she looked down at the electric rodent. "I know I also compress myself down into ball form but this is… different."

"Chu?" His ears perked up in curiosity.

"I mean," Samus began, uncrossing her arms and taking a seat down on the grass so she was closer to Pikachu's eyelevel. "I mean I feel like if I just put you in a ball all the time and only take you out to fight, I'm using you like you're some kind of a weapon. And I don't think of you as a weapon, Pikachu. You're my friend."

The little Pokémon's eyes began to water as he stared up at his new trainer with adoration. The loss of his first trainer had been devastating, and he had never expected to find anyone like Samus, and even once he had, he never expected she would accept his request to become his new trainer.

"Like, I don't want to use you in battle at all," Samus continued. "If we do ever come across another trainer, I'd rather just shoot them and their Pokémon so you don't have to risk getting hurt…"

Pikachu fell forward onto his face, dumbstruck by the sheer stupidity of Samus's statement, though he knew she meant it earnestly. He looked up at the mercenary. She still didn't have any concept of battles as anything but fights to the death. She didn't understand that it was natural for Pokémon trainers to engage in playfully competitive battles, and that most Pokémon enjoyed that kind of fighting.

Straightening up, he got to his feet and sighed. Samus had a lot of sharp edges to her, and he understood exactly where they came from. It would take a while for her to grasp the concept that if another trainer challenged them to a battle, it wasn't because anyone wanted to _harm_ them. But he could accept that. Samus didn't come from his world; she came from a world of kill or be killed. And he could accept she might never be a "real" trainer, just so long as she was _his_ trainer.

"Pika-pi-pikachu," he said, holding out his hand and grabbing the pokéball. He lowered it to the ground and brushed it to the side before grinning up at Samus. "Pika-Pikachu!"

Samus smiled back before reaching forward and grabbing the electric rodent and pulling him into her arms. She hugged him close as he nuzzled her shoulder.

"I'm sorry I kind of suck at this whole trainer thing," she said. "I'm still just trying to wrap my head around it. But hey, if I'm going to do it, I'm glad I get to be your trainer, little buddy. And like you said, now no one else can catch you and take you away from me."

"Pikachu!"

"And about the whole ball thing… are you cool if we just don't use it? I like having you around like this."

Pikachu nuzzled the knight's red tunic lovingly. "Pika pika."

"Good boy," Samus said as she pet his head and gave him a few light scratches behind his ears. "Good little buddy…"

"And here I thought I was the only one you were ever that affectionate with," came a woman's voice.

Samus looked up to see Queen Zelda standing in front of her, still dressed in her regular regal attire with her hands on her hips as she stared down at her lover and the Pokémon.

"You're going to need to be careful, Love," she said quietly as she reached out a hand to Samus. "The other knights are going to think you've gone soft and try to challenge your place."

Samus smirked and got to her feet without needing to take the princess's hand or ever using her own to steady herself. "Let them challenge me. There's a few I've been dying to put in their place ever since you got to the throne and appointed me to this role."

Zelda looked up at the extremely tall woman. She had a solid warrior's build, and even without her armor, she was an imposing sight.

"Now, now…" Zelda playfully chastised. "You know what we talked about regarding the other knights. Play nicely. Not everyone is a augmented super soldier from space, and I don't want you to hurt anyone accidentally."

"I'm pretty sure when Samus hurts people, it's one hundred percent intentional." Link appeared from behind Zelda as he approached the little group in the grass. He wore a cocky grin as he eyed the bounty hunter, his shoulder-length blond hair pulled back into a low ponytail. He was wearing a blue tunic with lighter blue designs on it and a pair of brown Hylian trousers. As always, a sword rested at his side, and he wore a shield bearing the crest of Hyrule on his back.

"Haven't seen you around the castle in a while," Samus said, looking him up and down while absently petting the sleepy Pikachu on her shoulder. "How are Malon and the little one doing?"

He made a face that was half-grin-half-grimace as he stretched his arms. "Turns out babies sleep a lot of hours… but not the same ones adults do."

Zelda snorted as she tried to muffle her laughter. Link looked exhausted, and it had been quite some time since they had seen him around the castle.

"Link," the Queen said, "you didn't happen to see anything unusual on your way over here, did you?"

He looked over to her and raised an eyebrow. "Something new attacking Hyrule?"

"Not attacking so much," she said slowly, trying to choose the right words, "as spreading a bit of chaos. There are a couple of witches running around. They're from some other world, like Samus and Pikachu are, and I don't think they intend to hurt anyone but they are… a bit much."

Samus grunted. "You can say that again."

Zelda ignored her. "I have a few Rito eyes in the sky and a few Sheikah on espionage duty, so I'm getting regular reports. They don't seem to be up to much at the moment, not since we placated the one that came into Hyrule Castle."

"And held a gun to Zelda's head," Samus added, watching the look of horror on Link's face.

Zelda frowned and gave Samus a look. "Yes, she did technically hold a gun to my head for a moment, but my loyal knight here protected me. It turns out, however, that she mistook me for being associated with Ganon because she saw us both wearing the Triforce."

"Someone held a gun to your head and you're being this calm about it?" Link's face expressed all of the shock and outrage that Samus felt, and the bounty hunter just nodded.

"That's what I said," she added.

Zelda looked between the two of them and shook her head. "Ganon attacked their world and took something of value from them. I don't blame them for responding like that to anyone they thought was associated with him. I know I would…"

"Their world," Samus continued, "is apparently where the Wonder of Shadow came from, so that clears up that little mystery. Why they want it, I have no idea. Even that Bayonetta didn't seem to know why it was important exactly, just that it was and she wanted it."

"Bayonetta?" Link asked. "That's a weird name."

"Well she _is_ from another world," Samus said, glancing over at Pikachu who was now very much asleep on her shoulder as she held him in one arm. "Pikachu and I are still trying to get used to this one."

"How's training going?" Zelda asked, smiling at how gentle Samus looked with the little Pokémon.

"Oh!" Link grinned. "So you decided to take him up on his offer and add Pokémon trainer to your list of professions?"

Samus shrugged. "I don't think I'm really cut out for it, but if being his trainer means no one else can catch him, why not? Not that anyone in this world has the balls to do it."

"The… what?" Link stared at her, his mouth agape.

Samus held up the red and white pokéball from earlier. "Apparently you need to catch them using these balls. I bought this last time we swung by his planet. It's like a tiny house for Pokémon or something. For some reason this is ethical."

"I see…" Link still looked confused and skeptical as he stared at the ball. "I guess I've still got a lot to learn about all this alien stuff…"

"Same," Samus said. "I'm still getting used to the culture of Hyrule, I guess…"

Zelda glanced at Samus, but the bounty hunter pretended not to notice. The Queen knew what she had been referring to since there was one major aspect of Hyrulian culture that Samus openly disapproved of, and it had been a point of contention between them off and on.

"Maybe once this thing with the witches is settled," the Queen said, discretely touching her lover's arm, "you can take me back into space for a couple of days. We could go hang out at one of those places for all of the other women like us…"

Samus didn't look enthusiastic as she looked down at Zelda and nodded. It was getting harder to find time to take Zelda out into space lately, but leaving the planet was the only way they could be open about their relationship. And it was exhausting to have to fly to another world anytime she wanted to take her lover's hand in public.

"Other women like you two?" a voice said suddenly, and Samus could feel her stomach turning over as she recognized it. Just as she expected, a circle of purple light with some weird symbols appeared, and out of it stepped the tall, slender form of Bayonetta.

Only this time, the witch wasn't alone. There was another woman beside her, a woman of similar build and wearing similar clothing, albeit blood red instead of black. She had short white-blonde hair and was wearing just as much makeup as the other witch, though she wasn't wearing glasses.

"Cereza," the blonde witch said as she looked over Samus, Zelda, Link, and Pikachu, "is that the Queen you told me about earlier? She's much cuter than you described. It's not like you to keep such details from me."

Samus could feel her face getting red again as she stared at the two witches, but this time she didn't have the helmet to hide behind, and Bayonetta noticed.

"I'm guessing one of you two is the knight from earlier?" Bayonetta said, sauntering up and looking between Link and Samus. "You're both very handsome, but I believe this one—" she pointed to Samus "is the person I met earlier, yes?"

The bounty hunter raised her eyebrows. "What gave it away?"

"Call it a woman's intuition." Bayonetta winked at her and watched as Samus's blush got deeper. "Besides, your little Queen was talking about going to places for other women like you, and you weren't exactly subtle earlier about your relationship, which again, I won't tell anyone about."

"Really, Cereza?" The blonde witch crossed her arms and strode up to Bayonetta. "You're into the butch type now?"

"Now, now, Jeanne," Bayonetta scoffed with a wave of her hand, "since when have I ever had a _type?"_

"So you're Jeanne," Zelda said, more to draw their attention away from the very frustrated-looking Samus and the very confused-looking Link. "I'm glad you two were able to meet up again and Bayonetta explained to you what happened to the Wonder of Shadow."

"She did," the witch called Jeanne said, but she frowned as she stared at Zelda. "She said it got lost or destroyed during a ritual at some point and that your knight attacked her. I can forgive the attempted murder easy enough, but you destroyed an ancient Umbran artifact! A stolen one, no less!"

"It's not like we're the ones who stole it," Samus cut in, stepping defensively between Zelda and Jeanne. "We killed the people responsible for that. And that Wonder wasn't just an artifact by itself. It was one of a set of seven, a set we needed to unite to complete the ritual and remove them from this world so they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands again."

"You don't get it do you?" Jeanne spat, glaring at Samus. "Fine, you needed it for your ritual. I'm sure that helped _your_ people and _your_ world, but what about mine? I was the heir to the Umbra legacy. My people put their trust in _me._ And you're acting like that was nothing."

"Jeanne," Bayonetta said in an unusually calm voice as she took the other witch's shoulders to placate her. "They did what they thought was the right thing. They had no way of knowing what you were planning on using that thing for."

"They still had no right to destroy what didn't belong to them," she said, but Samus could see that strangely enough the blonde seemed to be relaxing at Bayonetta's touch. "That Wonder of Darkness… it had a power, a power I could use to enhance our magic. The Umbra Witches were hunted down and slaughtered five hundred years ago. Only now that we've defeated the Creator Jubileus and awakened Cereza's memories could I even think about what I needed that power for."

Bayonetta sighed. "There was always a chance it wouldn't work, Jeanne…"

"What were you planning on doing with it?" Zelda asked, and Samus could see her eyes light up with the same wondrous curiosity they did whenever she found a new source of knowledge on the subject.

"Jeanne wanted," Bayonetta said, "to use the orb to enhance our dark magic and bring back the order of the Umbra Witches. If we could not resurrect the ones who were lost in the witch hunts, we were going to start a new line and pass on our lost culture."

A horrible thought flashed before Zelda's eyes as she remembered all too vividly the way Ganondorf had used the Wonder of Shadow to raise the dead, or rather, to reanimate the corpse of her dead father. She could feel her chest starting to tighten until Samus placed her free hand on her shoulder. She could feel herself relaxing even at her knight's slightest touch, and it helped her keep herself grounded.

"The Wonder of Shadow," Samus said, a solemn tone in her deep voice, "did indeed possess the power to raise the dead, but not in any manner in which you would want them… I don't know if it could have augmented your powers enough to create more Umbra Witches, but you certainly would not have been able to bring back the ones you lost. And for that, you have my condolences."

Jeanne looked skeptical at Samus's sentiment, but the bounty hunter had meant it. As the last heir of the Chozo, she understood the witches' predicament better than anyone.

"I'm sorry we could not be of more help," Zelda said, and her words sounded far more sincere than Samus's, a fact that was not lost on the witches. "The man who stole that artifact from you also killed my father, which is why I ascended to his throne several months ago."

Bayonetta snapped her fingers and got a smug look on her face. "That explains everything then." She nodded, seemingly in agreement with herself. "Yes, that'd do it."

"Do what?" Zelda asked, and even Jeanne looked confused as she looked at her companion.

"Yes, Cereza," the blonde witch said, staring at her questioningly. "Tell us what you're talking about."

Bayonetta just smirked and turned to the other witch, running a hand through her short blonde hair and pulling her in for a kiss as her other hand trailed down the red clothing on Jeanne's back.

"They're like us, my Dear," Bayonetta said as she pulled away and looked Jeanne in the eyes. "And I couldn't figure out what reason a Queen could possibly have for not revealing such a thing to her subjects. After all, who's going to do anything about it? But if she's a new Queen, that explains the trepidation…"

Zelda could feel her heart racing as she stared at Bayonetta and Jeanne. She felt frozen where she stood, knowing that the eyes of all the knights training on the same ground could be on them at this very moment. Staring. Seeing two women kiss one another so shamelessly in public like that. She was acutely aware of Samus's hand still on her shoulder, and suddenly, it terrified her.

"Come now," the dark haired witch said, looking between Samus's stoic demeanor and Zelda's look of pure panic. "You can't really be so afraid of what people will think of you that you literally leave the planet every time you want to hold hands? Or is this place truly as uptight as you make it seem?"


	4. Ch 4: Will You Ever

**Author's Note:** Hello! I just wanted to say a quick thank you for everyone who is reading and particularly those of you reviewing. I do really appreciate the comments. Not to much else to say this time around except that I finished Bayonetta 2 and it was AMAZING. Can't wait for 3 to come out. Anyway, enjoy chapter 4!

 **Chapter 4: Will You Ever**

"I can't believe that happened!" Zelda slammed the heavy wooden doors to her bedroom closed behind her. She banged the sides of her fists against them and huffed before turning to Samus. "Can you believe they did that? In front of everyone?"

The knight stood in the middle of the room, her face unreadable as she watched the angry Queen scurry over to her desk and begin messing with papers.

"I mean can you believe it?" Zelda repeated. "Do those two have no shame? Two women dressed like that and making out in the middle of the training grounds right where every knight in Hyrule can see—"

"Does it bother you?" Samus asked, keeping her deep voice level and her face stoic.

Zelda whirled around to look at her. "Of course it bothers me! Do you know how much harder this will make things for us? What will people say? They'll start talking about it and asking questions and—"

"And what's wrong with that?" Samus's voice still betrayed no emotion.

"What's wrong with…?" The Queen stared at her lover, wide eyed and confused. "They're _witches_ , Samus. It's bad enough the way people see women like us, and we don't need them associating us with _witches_ on top of that."

Samus looked down at her boot for a moment and flexed her gloved hand. She could feel Zelda's hot stare at the base of her neck. "So suppose people do talk… and they realize Bayonetta and Jeanne are a lesbian couple? How does that reflect on us? We get to hear how they respond to the idea of a same-sex couple at all instead of just assuming how they'll respond if they ever see one."

Zelda was taken back for a moment, but she frowned as she stared at Samus. "Are you kidding me? Maybe you don't know how they'll react, but _I_ know how they'll react, and they won't like it! It's going to be a problem for _us!_ "

"So say something." Samus didn't bother looking up at Zelda or making eye contact with her. "You're their Queen. Say something. Address their attitudes about it. Bayonetta and Jeanne's relationship isn't hurting anyone. They just need to see that, and you can be the one to show them."

"Ugh!" Zelda grunted and threw her hands in the air in frustration. "You just don't get it. They'll get suspicious and could find out about us and—"

"And so they find out about us." Samus's gaze snapped up, and her icy blue eyes met Zelda's. "So what? What are they going to do? Start rumors? Gossip? What's the big deal?"

"Samus, you know what—"

"Are you ashamed of me?" She stared Zelda dead in the eyes. "Are you ashamed of us? What it means you are?"

"Samus, don't be—"

"Because you're fine holding my hand when we're out in space together, but when we get back to Hyrule, you're the Queen again and I'm just your… servant."

Zelda was stunned for a moment as she stared at the knight, her mouth agape as Samus walked over and took a seat on the side of the bed. "Samus… you know that's not it at all… I love you."

The hunter sat with her legs wide, staring at the ground between them. "Loving me doesn't mean you aren't ashamed of me." When Zelda didn't say anything, Samus continued. "When I saw Bayonetta kiss Jeanne, it made me happy. Actually happy to see two other women like us in this world. And then you lost it and dragged us back here so you could freak out about how terrible it was that they kissed in public. But Zelda, I want that…" She looked up at the Queen. "I know I said I was willing to keep it a secret as long as you needed, but I can't help feeling like this secret is suffocating me."

Zelda just stared at Samus for a moment, trying to find the right words and coming up short. "How can you even ask me that? Ashamed of you? I spat in the face of thousands of years of tradition and made you my personal knight! Do you know how much damage that's already done to the monarchy?"

The Queen instantly regretted what she had said, and her face turned such a sickly shade of pale that it was almost green.

"Samus…" she said, her voice suddenly shaky. "I didn't mean it like that…"

"I know." Samus frowned. "I know my being here has already caused you to break from tradition in a lot of ways and set you at odds with the more conservative factions of the Royal Court but…" She shook her head. "Never mind. Forget I said anything. It's stupid."

Zelda just stared at Samus, whose eyes were cast to the ground in willful defeat. She wanted to do something to comfort her lover but was at a loss for how to go about it. There was too much at stake with the kingdom during this period of transition for her to come out as being in such an unconventional relationship. As it was, Zelda was the only heir to the throne and was already under intense pressure to choose a proper suitor so she could produce a child.

"I suppose I overreacted a bit," the Queen said after a long, uncomfortable silence, but Samus didn't react. "Maybe it would be good to see how people respond to Bayonetta and Jeanne kissing like that. It will at least let us know what we're up against when we do decide to go public."

Samus just sat in silence, staring at the ground. Eventually she shifted uncomfortably and looked up at Zelda. "Do you think we ever will? Go public with our relationship, I mean."

"I don't see why not," Zelda said, walking over to the bed and sitting beside her lover. "Once things settle down and my rule is more stable."

Zelda placed a hand on Samus's back, and Samus looked up at her before leaning forward and resting her head on the Queen's shoulder.

"I'm sorry," said the knight. "I didn't mean to go off on you like that. I know you're not trying to hide me because you're ashamed of me or anything like that."

Zelda frowned as she undid Samus's ponytail and ran a hand through the hunter's long blonde hair as it cascaded down her back. She knew she wasn't ashamed to be with Samus, but on some level she also knew she was terrified of anyone finding out the two of them were together, and it went beyond just the effects it would have on the monarchy. While she could never be ashamed of Samus, she was afraid of how differently people would look at her if they knew their Queen had such unusual proclivities, if they knew she was attracted to a woman.

"They've started asking about my search for a husband again," Zelda said as she gently caressed Samus's back. "At least those witches showing up should give them something else to talk about for a while."

Samus's body relaxed under her lover's touch, and she shifted herself so that she was lying with her head in Zelda's lap. "Have you given any further thought to how you're going to handle that?"

The Queen could feel her knight tense up as she waited for the response, but Zelda reassured her by softly touching her face and running her fingers through her blonde tresses. "Continue delaying until the time is right. And then just tell the truth, announce my intent to change the law so I can marry you."

Samus closed her eyes as she savored Zelda's soft caress. "I can't give you an heir."

"I know," the Queen said softly, looking down at Samus. "But there are other ways of producing heirs."

Zelda continued to pet Samus's head and back as she rested. It was rare to see the bounty hunter so docile. She almost looked asleep as she lay with her head in Zelda's lap, her body completely limp on their bed. It was a level of vulnerability Samus never would have shown anyone back when Zelda first met her, and now it had become natural for her to slip into when it was just the two of them. For all that the hunter disliked their social customs, Zelda knew Samus felt at home in Hyrule, and it was one of the only places in the galaxy where she actually felt safe enough to let her guard down.

"We will be married someday," Zelda said, more to herself than to Samus. "For real, not just behind closed doors. You've never been 'just a knight' to me."

Samus rolled over onto her back and stared up at Zelda. "I've never regretted my sex before. I'd never actually given it any thought at all. Sometimes lately though I find myself wishing I had been born a male so that I could be a real suitor for you and actually give you children instead of all these problems…"

Zelda felt a sharp pain in her chest as she looked down at her partner, and she was filled with a sudden sickly disgust. "Stop!" she said, leaning down and pulling herself close to Samus. "Stop right there! You don't get to do that. You don't get to blame yourself! I am not letting the people of Hyrule's antiquated prejudices make you hate yourself, any aspect of yourself! I don't want you to be different, Samus, and I don't want you to worry about something you can't change. I love you the way you are! As a woman… traditions be damned. I don't care that you can't give me children. I just love you!"

Samus stared wide-eyed at Zelda for a moment, and before the Queen knew what was happening, she found herself flipped over onto her back. As Samus hovered over her, the Queen pulled her knight down into a deep, passionate kiss. She could taste Samus's desire, feel the intensity with which the hunter wanted her in that moment. Her kisses were hot and hungry as the knight's hands found their way around her Queen's waist and upper back.

Zelda reached around Samus's body and grabbed at her red tunic, desperately trying to pull it off as Samus's hot kisses made their way down Zelda's neck, leaving her panting with the intensity. She hadn't been expecting Samus to initiate their love-making just then, but she sure as hell wanted it every bit as badly, if not more so, than the hunter did.

It was an awkward process fumbling to remove Samus's tunic, but the knight seemed to be having an easier time. With a clear disregard for its symbolism, she took the chest of Zelda's red gown in her gloved hands and tore it straight down the middle as easily as if it were made of paper. As Zelda looked up at her in naught but a white bodice, Samus stared down with a cocky, roguish grin that only served to set the Queen's desire evermore aflame. She grabbed Samus with all her strength, yanking at the red tunic and trying to pull it over the knight's head.

Samus laughed as she assisted her, the stubborn garment coming off much more easily in their joint effort. It was nearly removed when, in Zelda's urgency, she pulled a bit too hard and nearly tore off Samus's gloves along with it. Casting the tunic to the side, Samus paused for a moment to fix her leather gloves as she sat straddled atop Zelda's hips. In the meanwhile, the Queen enjoyed the view of her lover's chiseled but scarred abdomen as she looked up at Samus in her trousers and black sports bra.

She ran her hands gently along Samus's exposed lower back and grinned when she felt the goose bumps on her skin and the way the knight flinched ever so slightly at the chill. Grinning, she grabbed Samus's waist and tried to pull her closer.

The bounty hunter leaned down and cupped the Queen's cheek as she met her mouth in another passionate kiss. The hunter's free hand traced down the side of her lover's body and lingered over her thigh before slipping up her skirt. Zelda whimpered ever so slightly as their kisses grew deeper and their need for one another grew greater. The Queen wrapped her arms around the warrior's muscular back and pulled her closer until Samus was nearly lying on top of her.

"I love you, Samus Aran," she whispered breathlessly as she pulled away from their kiss so she could gaze up at her knight, her hand coming down to trace a long scar that ran along Samus's shoulder and collar bone.

Samus just made an enthusiastic purring sound as she lowered herself on Zelda's body, kissing hungrily down her neck and over her décolletage as the Queen ran her hands through the knight's hair and tangled her fingers into the long blonde locks. The hunter's hands found the chest of her bodice and were about to make the final rip, but she was interrupted by a crashing sound.

Samus's demeanor instantly changed as she sprung up, her body rigid and on high alert as she looked for the source of the sound. Zelda, feeling very naked now that Samus's warm body was no longer in contact with hers, pulled the torn remains of her gown around her for warmth, shrinking beneath the hunter's protective stance. Samus was on her feet in a matter of seconds, her armor forming around her as she stood defensively between the Queen and what Zelda realized was the source of the crashing sound: a broken mirror at the other end of the room.

Zelda could feel her breath coming more quickly now as she looked at the broken mirror. It had once stood nearly as tall as she did, but now it lay shattered in pieces on the floor with no apparent cause. Samus must have seen something because the hunter's senses seemed to have honed in on something as she pointed her arm cannon toward where the mirror had been.

"Show yourself," she demanded in her deep synthesized voice. "Bayonetta? Jeanne?"

But neither of the witches appeared, nor did their usual circle of purple light.

"Poyo?" A small sound came from the dark corner behind an old wooden chest of drawers.

"Who's there?" Samus called in her commanding tone.

"Poyo!"

Zelda recognized that sound. It was oddly familiar, but she couldn't place it. She didn't have to think for long, however, because out from behind the chest of drawers stepped a tiny bizarre creature.

It was a round pink little thing with comically large red feet. It had big black eyes and red cheeks and two stumpy little arms that seemed to come out of the sides of its head. Its face occupied most of its body.

"HIIAAYY!" it called, grinning joyously as it recognized Samus and Zelda. It ran over excitedly to Samus and wrapped its small bizarre arms around her leg. "Poyo!"

"Samus," Zelda asked, pointing to the little pink thing, "is that the creature that Captain Falcon had in a jar…? The Guardian who had the Wonder of Water?"

"Poyo!"

"I think so?" Samus looked down at the little guy, setting her arm cannon at ease as she knelt down and reached her free hand out to it. "Hey, little guy…"

"Poy!" It jumped up onto her hand and used it as a point from which to hop onto her oversized shoulders. It smiled cheerfully as it flopped on top of her helmet and tried to look down through her visor. "Poyo!"

"I take it you remember me?" She glanced over to the shattered mirror. "Are you the one who broke that mirror just now?"

"Poyo?" The little pink fellow looked worried as it looked between Samus and the shattered glass, back to Samus and then back to the shattered glass. "Poyo Poyo!"

"Can you understand what it's saying?" Zelda asked, still wrapped up in the remains of her royal gown as she sat on the bed.

"I'm pretty sure it's just saying 'Poyo,'" Samus replied. "I wonder if it's a Pokémon and that's its name? Poyo?"

"It also said 'Hi' earlier. Have you heard of a Pokémon called Hi-Poyo?"

Samus shook her head, the pink creature bouncing about as she did so. "I could ask Pikachu later…"

"We're going to need to figure out how this little guy got into my room… and clean up the mirror." Zelda frowned as she looked at the shattered antique. It had been in her family for generations, most recently belonging to her mother before it had been passed down to her.

"Poyo!" The pink creature hopped up suddenly, jumping off of Samus's head and down to the floor where it stood and faced the shattered mirror. It turned to the two women and pointed to itself and grinned as though to say "watch this!" before turning back to the pile of debris.

Suddenly, the tiny creature opened its mouth extremely wide, seeming to double its whole body in size as it did so. It began to inhale with a powerful sucking force as the shards of the mirror began to fly toward it.

Zelda yelped as the razor sharp pieces flew into the tiny creature's mouth.

"Hey little guy!" Samus called. "Be careful! Don't eat broken glass! You'll hurt yourself!"

But before anyone could do anything about it, the weird pink alien had completely inhaled the debris from the broken mirror. A very distinctive swallowing sound came from it as its form collapsed back into its normal size.

"Poyo!" It turned to face the two women as it gave its animated smile and waved at them.

"A-are you okay…?" Zelda slowly began to step off of the bed, but she stopped as the creature's face contorted suddenly and it looked like it was going to be sick.

Before Zelda or Samus knew what was happening, the pink creature turned back to where the shattered mirror had been and projectile vomited out a burst of light. The light bounced off the wall and landed precisely where the mirror had been, and as it faded, the ancient mirror was there in its place, fully intact as though it had never been broken to begin with.

The pink creature turned to Samus and Zelda once more, clearly pleased with itself as it grinned proudly. "Poyo!"

The Queen and the knight just exchanged looks, each knowing what the other was thinking. Between the appearance of the witches earlier and now the former Guardian of Water, something was going on. And by the looks of it, things were about to get a whole lot more complicated.


	5. Ch 5: The Witch

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone, sorry this update took so long. I know it's been like a month and a half or something. I was in the hospital for a bit and have been rushing about with doctors and whatnot, so I haven't had the energy to write.

Suffice to say, I'm doing better now than I was and I was able to bang out this chapter. I won't make you wait so long for the one after this, don't worry. And once again thank you for your patience and continued support. And thank you to everyone who has left comments and kudos. I really appreciate it.

Anyway, here's chapter 5. Enjoy! And I hope you're all doing well!

 **Chapter 5: The Witch**

"Oh my!" Bayonetta stared in awe as she lifted the small pink creature over her head and grinned. It smiled back enthusiastically and kicked its little red feet.

"Poyo!" the creature said gleefully. "Poyo!"

"So do you know what it is?" Samus asked as she leaned up against the stone wall and watched the witch playing with the little pink alien. They were standing in one of the rarely used halls in the old part of the castle, far from anyone who might stumble upon them.

Samus was still in her armored suit, and Pikachu was perched on her shoulder, both of them on guard as they watched the witch and the strange little alien.

"I haven't the slightest clue," Bayonetta replied. "But he says hisname is Kirby."

Samus raised her eyebrows. She was normally pretty good at figuring out what non-human animals were trying to say, and yet she had been completely at a loss as to what Kirby was and hadn't even bothered to wonder if he had a name. She had been too distracted by Zelda magically repairing her gown and heading back out to her Court when her presence had been requested, leaving Samus alone with the little creature.

At first, Samus had gone to Pikachu to see if he recognized him as a Pokémon, but Pikachu shook his head and suggested Bayonetta and Jeanne might know what the little alien was. Samus had acted reluctant to approach the witches, but in truth she was actually somewhat intrigued and thankful for a chance to have another talk with them. A much more private, one-on-one talk with Bayonetta specifically.

"So soft!" Bayonetta said, squishing Kirby playfully as he giggled. She pulled the little guy in for a hug and held him tight. "Like a stuffed animal."

"You two seem to be getting along pretty well considering you've never met anything like him before," Samus said, amused by how enthralled the Umbran was with their newest visitor.

Bayonetta adjusted her glasses and smirked at Samus. "You're hardly one to talk, Ms. Knight. You seem to collect friends from all over the galaxy between your pet and your Queen."

Samus paused for a moment, but then she nodded in agreement. "So I do…"

Bayonetta didn't say anything as she went back to playing with Kirby, throwing him up in the air and catching him in a tight hug a few times. The little guy seemed to love it as he grinned and kicked his feet happily.

There were burning questions on Samus's mind, and very few of them were related to Kirby as she looked at Bayonetta and recalled the earlier scene on the training grounds.

"So…" she asked hesitantly, not sure how to broach the topic, "have you and Jeanne been together long?"

Bayonetta looked at her, a cocky glint in her eyes as she adjusted her glasses. "You could say that. We were friends as children. Then some things happened, but I won't bore you with those details. Our kind were killed off, I was locked in a box underwater for 500 years, we attempted to murder each other and whatnot. And then we remembered how much we had cared for one another at one time and that grew into something more. We've been living together for about six months."

Samus nodded. Six months was nowhere near as long as she had expected given the way they seemed so in sync with one another. But then again, they had known one another forever and came from the same world. "You're very lucky to have found each other."

Bayonetta's smirk faltered as she looked the armored bounty hunter up and down. "I take it you and the Queen have been together roughly as long?"

It took a moment for Samus to answer, but she eventually nodded. "Something like that."

Bayonetta resumed tossing Kirby up in the air and catching him. "You seem frustrated, my dear. I'm not usually one for sob stories, but from what I can tell, you haven't anyone else to speak to about it. I know you didn't drag me down into this deserted hallway for my knowledge on extra-terrestrial species…"

"I'm all right," Samus lied, but she could tell the witch was not having any of it. It was too obvious what was troubling her, even with the suit obscuring most of her face.

"Why don't you slip into something a little more comfortable and we'll sit down and chat in one of these dusty old rooms." Bayonetta gestured toward a series of doors that looked like they hadn't been opened in a hundred years. "Anything has to be better than this dreadful hallway."

Again, Samus hesitated, but she agreed, pulling Pikachu into her arm and dematerializing the suit. She stood in her standard knight's tunic and trousers, feeling more like she was masquerading in a costume rather than wearing her own uniform. She followed Bayonetta into what looked like an abandoned parlor room. It was as elegantly decorated as any of the other rooms in the castle, a pair of delicate couches with a faded floral print standing on either side of a small table. On top of the table sat a full tea set, two cups still sitting on saucers as though whoever had last occupied this room had left in a hurry, never to return again.

Samus sat on one couch, placing Pikachu beside her, while Bayonetta sat on another, still holding Kirby in her lap as she pulled a pink lollipop out of her cleavage and began to suck on it.

"Now, Lady Knight," she said. "What is it you're dying to tell me?"

Samus swallowed hard, sitting with her legs wide and fidgeting with her hands. She looked down at the ground and then back up again at Bayonetta.

"Zelda and I are never going to be a real couple, not the way you and Jeanne are." Simultaneously, she felt a weight lifted off her chest as something heavy sank deep into her stomach. "She keeps saying that someday we're going to be able to go public and get married and not have to hide our relationship but… she _is_ a queen. I'm not a prince. I'm not anything. I'm not even a man, and I can't give her an heir."

Bayonetta carelessly licked her lollipop, looking down every now and then to give Kirby a pat on the head. "I suppose that does complicate things. Jeanne is technically the heir to the Umbran throne, but it is morbidly convenient that the rest of our people are dead and can't object to us being together. Then again… all of the Umbra Witches were female. Our relationship wouldn't exactly stand out to anyone."

"It's nothing where I come from," Samus continued. "You see all sorts of people in space, all sorts of relationships. We go there sometimes so we can just be together and feel normal." She shook her head. "The Royal Court has been gathering suitors for her. With the former King dead, Zelda is the only one left in the royal bloodline. If she dies without an heir it will plunge Hyrule into chaos."

"And even if they were to accept your relationship then," Bayonetta said, nodding her head, "you still couldn't be together. Because she needs someone who can give her children. What a quandary…"

"I never even thought about the possibility of having children," Samus replied. "Most of my reproductive organs were removed as a child to make me a more efficient warrior. So I never even considered the heir situation would arise with Zelda."

"You're clearly not descended from royalty," Bayonetta quipped. "To be honest, I'm not sure what you're descended from, but it's pretty obvious you're not from anywhere remotely resembling this Hyrule place. You must really like Zelda to be sticking around."

Samus shrugged. "I'd live anywhere as long as it meant living with her. Ironically though, the fact that we live here is the worst part of our relationship." She was quiet for a moment, stroking Pikachu behind his ears and watching Bayonetta fidgeting with Kirby like a kid with a new toy. "You really like that little guy, don't you?"

"I thought that was painfully obvious." Bayonetta lifted him up to her face's height so they could see each other eye to eye.

"Poyo!" Kirby shouted with a grin as he looked at the witch.

"Yes, Little One," she said, pulling him back into a hug, "I like you quite a bit too."

Samus normally understood relationships between human and nonhuman animals surprisingly well, but even she couldn't figure out the sudden attraction between Bayonetta and Kirby, assuming the witch was telling the truth and neither of them knew the other until now.

Bayonetta eyed the bounty hunter knowingly.

"Maybe you think it's weird," she said, "but when I like something I just like it. If I don't like something, I don't like it. I don't feel the need to downplay my affections or my repulsions. I like Kirby. He's like a living stuffed animal and I like stuffed animals. It's not that complicated."

Samus looked down at Pikachu and smiled. "Okay, I get that."

"And I love Jeanne, naysayers be damned." She frowned. "I'm not going to act any different just because I'm here in elf world. If anything were to happen to Jeanne, I'd gladly go to hell and back to save her. Compared to that, what are the comments of other people?"

Samus shifted uncomfortably. "I'm a six and a half foot tall mutated cyborg woman who blew up a planet a couple of months ago. I _know_ what people say about me. I don't care about that. But I don't want anyone to say anything about Zelda, especially not something that would complicate her reign. She's got enough on her plate without me adding to it."

Bayonetta nodded. "Seems like the type to burn the candle on both ends. But then again, so do you."

Samus just raised her eyebrows and nodded. "You can say that again. Between evil wizards, radioactive planets, a dragon that won't stay dead, and now mysterious creatures showing up from other worlds, I think we've got more than enough going on outside of our dumb relationship drama."

"Don't forget the beautiful lesbian witches," Bayonetta said with a smirk.

"Yeah," Samus replied, returning the smirk, "like I said, mysterious creatures from other worlds randomly showing up."

"It was hardly random." The witch shrugged. "We were looking for that Wonder of Shadow Jeanne wants and was supposed to be guarding… or maybe I was supposed to be the one guarding it…" She looked thoughtful for a second. "That might have been my job before ending up in that box but… oh well, let's just say Enzo was supposed to be guarding it. Yes, he's the one who screwed up. Bloody Enzo…"

Samus wasn't sure who Enzo was but she had the distinct feeling he was definitely not the one who was supposed to be guarding the Wonder.

"Anyway," Bayonetta continued, "our presence here certainly isn't random. Although I can't say the same of this adorable puff ball." She looked down at Kirby and patted him on the head.

"He was the one guarding the Wonder of Water." Something clicked suddenly in Samus's head. "Maybe you're right and this isn't random… definitely too weird to be a coincidence."

The bounty hunter stood up suddenly, Pikachu jumping back up onto her shoulder. Bayonetta looked surprised but didn't bother getting up from the couch.

"You do a thing," Samus said, the connections starting to line up in her mind. "A portal thing. You go through portals or something to… a different world? A limitless void? Some other dimension?"

"Purgatorio," Bayonetta said. "Another plain in the trinity of realities. It's very complicated."

Samus looked confused.

"Think about it like a three-way Venn diagram," Bayonetta said. "The trio of realities are Purgatorio, Paradiso, and Inferno, all overlapping with the human plane. Jeanne and I travel freely between this plane of reality and Purgatorio, so I can move through your world completely undetected."

"And the other two worlds?" Samus asked, still completely confused and somewhat skeptical but deciding to go with it because she couldn't think of a better explanation. "Paradiso and Inferno? Do you think maybe Kirby traveled here through…?"

Bayonetta laughed, finally standing up and shaking her head. "Don't be ridiculous. This little one is definitely neither an Angel nor an Infernal. He's just a squishy friend."

"Right…" Samus still had no idea what the witch was talking about but decided she didn't feel like inquiring any further. "At any rate, when we joined the Seven Wonders together in our ritual six months ago, we stepped through some kind of portally thing into a different dimension and walked along some kind of rainbow road until we found this 'Eighth Wonder', but to this day, we have no idea what the damn thing does. It's supposed to have some kind of time-space-power-thing going on but it's just been a shiny paperweight on Zelda's desk that she keeps freaking out about."

Samus paused, looking Bayonetta over once more and realizing that she had been spilling her guts about her relationship issues and the business about the Wonders to someone who was functionally a complete stranger. Almost as though she could read Samus's mind, Bayonetta looked over her glasses and met Samus's eyes.

"You really don't have anyone around here you talk to other than the Queen and your pet, do you?" Bayonetta asked. Her tone wasn't mocking like Samus had expected it to be. Rather, it was a sincere inquiry.

"That's more people than I normally have to talk to," Samus said, trying to shrug it off but the witch knew better.

"You really could use some other friends, you know. Human friends. Female friends." Bayonetta smiled kindly, catching Samus completely by surprise. "Women like yourself."

The bounty hunter was quiet for a moment, looking Bayonetta over and trying to figure out if the other woman's sympathies were some kind of ploy.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Bayonetta continued when she realized Samus wasn't going to say anything. "The whole trying to murder you thing and whatnot. And trying to murder your girlfriend. And falsely accusing you of stealing from us. And trying to summon a demon to come out of Hell and murder you… In retrospect, we really did get off on the wrong foot, didn't we? All the more reasons it's weird you're telling me any of this…"

"Yes," Samus said, her face suddenly turning hot and red as she processed everything that had transpired in the very short amount of time she had known Bayonetta. She couldn't bring herself to be angry with the witch at the moment, but she was feeling very conflicted now. Opening up to Bayonetta had been easy. Too easy.

On the other hand, her feelings had been building up for so long, she wasn't surprised she had spilled them to the first person who would listen. As much as she was fond of Link and Impa, they were Zelda's people first and foremost. Everyone in Hyrule was one of Zelda's people, and it wouldn't have felt right complaining to them about her frustrations with their relationship. But other than Pikachu, it wasn't like Samus had any friends of her own…

"So," Samus began, "are you implying you want to be friends after all that?"

Bayonetta shrugged nonchalantly. "Better than being enemies. I'm not opposed to befriending people I have no reason to kill."

"I… um… weirdly enough, I perfectly understand that sentiment."

"So it's agreed then." Bayonetta grinned. "We're going to attempt this whole friendship thing. And not kill one another."

Samus hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly. "Yes… friendship. We can make an attempt, I guess."

"Poyo!" Kirby called out from Bayonetta's arms, reaching his own stumpy arms toward Samus and Pikachu.

"Looks like the Little One wants to befriend you as well," Bayonetta said, rubbing the little alien's head. "It's a concept he understands quite well."

Samus looked at Kirby and tried to smile, although it looked awkward and forced. This whole afternoon was getting far too weird, even by her standards.

"I think we should prioritize finding out where he came from," Samus said, ready for this conversation to be over so she could hopefully meet up with Zelda again, assuming the Court had finished its business with her.

Bayonetta nodded and noted Samus's body language and the way she seemed to be subconsciously angling herself toward the door. "Agreed. Plus it seems like you're anxious to get back to your lover."

Samus couldn't help smiling a little at the way Bayonetta had referred to Zelda as her lover. It had been so long since she had heard someone so casually mention it aloud, she had forgotten just how nice it felt.

"Yes," the bounty hunter replied, a warmth spreading through her chest as she thought of Zelda and how they had held one another only a few hours earlier, before Kirby had stumbled into their bedroom. "I suppose I do want to rush off and see if she's free yet…"

Bayonetta smiled, and Samus could tell somehow that it was a true smile, the sort of smile one actually gives to a friend. "I'm sure she's just as eager to see you too. I know you're both having some issues with the way things are, but I could see the way she looked at you earlier. The Queen loves you every bit as much as you love her, and not acknowledging that love is tearing her up inside too."

Samus just nodded, wanting to change the subject. "So how long are you and Jeanne planning to stick around here?"

Bayonetta shrugged, breaking their momentary intimacy and regaining her normal flippant air. "I suppose we'll hang around until we get bored with the place. Or until Jeanne gives up on whatever she's trying to do since Enzo so carelessly lost her pretty Shadow rock or whatever it was called."

Samus couldn't help but chuckle at that remark, still convinced this Enzo fellow had literally nothing to do with the Wonder. She was about to head out the door, but then an idea occurred to her. Reaching into the pocket of her trousers, she pulled out one of the little pokéballs she and Pikachu had bought together on his planet.

"For you," she said, holding it out to Bayonetta as the witch curiously took it. "It's for keeping friends inside of. It's a custom from Pikachu's world or something. I don't think I can actually put you inside of the ball like I can with him, but since its for storing friends, I thought it would be appropriate to give you one."

Bayonetta stared blankly at the pokéball, looking confused. She had clearly never seen anything like it in her life and wasn't sure how Samus thought she was supposed to fit inside of it.

Samus, on the other hand, looked quite pleased with herself, happy to give the friendship ball to her newest friend-attempt. Pikachu, on the other hand, just buried his face in Samus's hair as he tried to hide his look of embarrassment.


	6. Ch 6: For What It's Worth

**Author's Note:** Thanks for reading and extra thanks for reviewing. I always really appreciate but I appreciate it more than ever right now since my life has been kind of nuts the past couple of months. So thank you for taking the time to go that extra mile. It's feedback and knowing people enjoy the story that motivates me to come back and keep writing.

 **Chapter 6: For What It's Worth**

Queen Zelda normally didn't mind addressing the Royal Court and the Hylian Nobles who gave her audience, but she could feel a certain level of tension in the air this time as she stepped into the rebuilt Hall. It was an unusually crowded meeting with all of her normal Court sitting in the front as always, but there were also a few more common citizens of her kingdom standing in the back behind the seating area. She could feel all of their eyes on her as a knight escorted her up to her ornately carved stone podium, bearing the Triforce and crest of Hyrule.

A Hylian nobleman with long white hair stood and looked to the Queen. He was wearing an ornately decorated green coat, and Zelda recognized him from the Court's last meeting.

"Queen Zelda," he said, taking a step forward. "We thank you for coming on such short notice to this meeting of the Court, but the highest ranking members of the Council of Nobles have decided such issues were imperative to discuss with you as soon as possible."

Zelda kept her face set and stoic as she looked down at him. Only moments ago she had been in her bedroom beginning to make love to Samus before they were interrupted by the appearance of the strange pink creature. Now she stood in her magically repaired gown, staring out at the same group of stuffy Nobleman she had just addressed right before the appearance of the witches.

"And why have you called this meeting?" she asked, completely blindsided by the suddenness of it. "What business was so important as to pull me from my bed chambers?"

"As you are aware, Your Majesty" another older man said as he stood to address his Queen. This one was wearing a long red cloak. "There have been some visitors to Hyrule recently who have caused a bit of chaos, other worldly visitors, the very same who began their battling right in this very Hall. The people are unsurprisingly concerned by this turn of events, and rightfully so after what happened to the Late King."

Zelda flinched slightly as she remembered the battle that had brought down the original Hall, the one where her father had been killed and Samus had shielded her from Ganon's reanimation of the corpse. They were the same visions that haunted her nightmares.

"I'm very well aware of what has happened here," she said, in an attempt to assuage the anxieties of all present. "There was simply a misunderstanding between Hyrule and the witches who appeared here. They were wronged, just as we were, by Ganondorf, and had come seeking vengeance on him. Understandably they were confused by the fact that he bore the symbol of the Triforce, but Samus and I spoke to them and managed to set everything straight."

"But that's the other problem," the Nobleman in the green coat said, his voice betraying a hint of contempt. "The witches are not the only otherworldly aliens who have come to Hyrule, and ever since this began several months ago, it has only gotten worse. Since the appearance of that Space Dragon and that woman you insisted on making your Appointed Knight, we've lost our King, had the original Hall of the Royal Court destroyed, and have been left without any heir to the throne, in no small part because you refuse to perform your duties as Queen and take a husband."

The Nobleman in the red cloak nodded, jumping in but with more reverence for his Queen. "Your Majesty, everyone knows you are quite fond of the large alien woman and her yellow lightning cat, but there is no denying that the problems that have plagued Hyrule in this past year… they've been caused because of alien creatures coming to this world. Something must be done about it…"

"Now hold on," Zelda said, feeling like she had just been slapped across the face. "Yes, there have been problems with couple of aliens, but not all of them have been bad. Ridley caused us great trouble, but most of that was because of Ganon, a man who was of _our world._ Bayonetta and Jeanne were able to be reasoned with when we discovered it was a misunderstanding, and you know Samus and Pikachu have dedicated themselves completely to protecting Hyrule and me!"

"But what's to stop more of them from coming?" a woman asked from the back of the room. She was dressed in ragged clothing and seemed worn out from living, though she didn't appear to be much older than Zelda. "Your Appointed Knight, that woman with the magic armor, she goes back to the stars often and sometimes takes you with her. What good could come of that? Who will protect Hyrule if its supposed protector takes away our Queen? And what if you don't come back?"

"If you die without an heir," the green-coated Nobleman said, his tone getting distinctly harsher with each word, "it will plunge Hyrule into chaos. Your family has ruled this land for millennia, and you are the last of the bloodline. Your duty is to your kingdom, not to the aliens. You claim this Samus is protecting us, but none of these problems occurred before she arrived here. And all I see is you protecting her from having to obey the laws of this land. She is a woman. She never should have been made a knight. And she is an outsider. She should never have been given access to your bed chambers or your trust."

"You, Sir, are out of line!" Zelda slammed her hands down on the podium as she glared at the Nobleman. "Did you forget that Samus helped us to seal away Ganondorf? That she has done nothing but serve this land since she got here? That she saved my life as well as Link's? As well as all of your damned lives? She has proven herself over and over again to be a loyal soldier and an excellent knight, and as for why I let her into my bedchambers, that's the whole benefit of having a Lady Knight as my bodyguard! So she can protect me within my room even as I sleep!"

The green-coated Nobleman glared right back at her. "It's wonderful that you're so… _taken_ with your Appointed Knight. But need I remind you, a Queen need not sleep alone once she has taken a King."

The peasant woman in the back stepped forward once more, her eyes on Zelda. "Why do you protect that woman but not your people from the fate that would befall us if one of those aliens struck you down without an heir?"

Zelda took a deep breath and composed herself as she looked over the people of Hyrule, gathered before her, looking to her for guidance. They were scared, scared of the aliens but mostly scared and devastated by the unexpected loss of their King at the hands of Ridley and Ganondorf, and she knew that they were right. If she also died suddenly, there would be no one to take over her monarchy, and her kingdom would be plunged into chaos.

"Then it is decided," Zelda said, carefully pacing her words and hating the way they felt falling from her mouth, "I will begin my search for a suitor, for the next King of Hyrule. I have mourned my father long enough, and in that time, Hyrule has been without an heir and without a King. So I open that invitation to you now. I will assemble a band of knights who will go forth into the kingdom and determine the best candidates for the throne. And then I will make my choice. Because my kingdom and its people come first to me, above all else in my life."

As she finished speaking, the crowd began to stand and applaud her, glad to hear that their Queen would begin her search for a suitor at last. Such occasions were usually call for celebration throughout the land, but Zelda was not celebrating. As she gazed into the crowd, all she saw were the eyes of the Nobleman in the green coat, and he gave her a knowing look as if to say she wasn't fooling him and he knew the real reason why she had take so long to begin the search for a suitor. She simply kept her face stoic as she looked down at him, not giving him another inch.

Eventually, the Hall cleared out, Zelda still standing at her podium as she watched them go. She made no indication of her feelings toward what had just happened, simply remained quiet until the last of the Nobles left and it was just her and the knight who had escorted her there in the first place. He tried to lead her from the Hall, but she brushed him off and went her own way, turning down one of the many long halls she had traversed since she was a girl.

She didn't want to talk to him or anyone else. She simply wanted to be alone, so she headed down to one of the long since abandoned corridors she had often hid in as a child when she hadn't wanted anyone to find her. She let herself into a small forgotten chapel to the goddess Nayru and knelt in front of the worn blue alter. Only then did she allow herself to collapse and begin crying.

She was angry, angry at herself for the way she had behaved during the meeting, angry at the people who had accused her of not caring about Hyrule when it was the one thing she had dedicated her entire life to serving. She was angry at herself for opening the search for suitors, but she was also angry that she had neglected her duties as the reigning Queen and left her people so vulnerable as she had gallivanted through space with Samus. And there was also a part of her that was ashamed of ever falling in love with Samus, and she hated that most of all. She felt like she had failed both her kingdom and her love.

She wasn't sure how long she had knelt there sobbing in front of the statue of the goddess, but eventually she heard footsteps approaching. Surprised that anyone might be coming this was, she dried her face as quickly as she could, but she was still on her knees by the time the figure opened the door to the chapel and stood in the entryway.

"Zelda?" Samus asked, looking alarmed and rushing toward her before Zelda could protest. "Are you okay? What happened?"

The Queen just dismissed her with a wave of her hand. "I'm fine. How did you even find me here?"

Kneeling so that she was closer to Zelda's eye level, the bounty hunter looked concerned. "I always know where you are. It's my job. I saw a crowd of people leaving the Hall of the Royal Court, and you weren't with them, but you weren't in your bedchambers either. So I knew something must have happened, and you always come here when you're upset."

Zelda just looked up at Samus, still dwarfed by the Amazonian woman even when they were kneeling. "I did something today that you're not going to like."

"I'm guessing you finally let them begin the search for a suitor."

The Queen blinked in surprise as she stared up at her lover. "How did you—?"

"It was pretty obvious you couldn't put it off forever." Samus looked down and switched to a sitting position. "You couldn't put our relationship before your kingdom, and I could never ask you to do that. So this was going to happen eventually. And with Bayonetta and Jeanne appearing, people are afraid because of what happened before. And you need to take care of them because you're their Queen."

All Zelda could do was nod. She wanted to fall into Samus's arms and make it all go away, but she didn't feel right doing that right after what she had done in the Hall.

"So," Samus asked after a few moments of silence, "what does this mean for us?"

Zelda waited a long time before answering, trying to grab hold of any trains of thought but coming up empty-handed. "I don't know."

"For what it's worth," the bounty hunter said, not making eye contact with the Queen, "I still love you."

Zelda nodded. "I still love you, too." But her words sounded bleak and hopeless.

"I can't believe how pathetic the two of you are," a voice came suddenly from the doorway.

Samus and Zelda instantly looked up to see who it was, Samus jumping to her feet to defend the Queen. But she relaxed slightly when she realized it was only the blond witch, Jeanne.

"I'm really not in the mood to be insulted right now," Samus said, still defensive but less ready to start throwing punches than she was a few seconds before. "We're having an important discussion, so do you mind giving us some privacy?"

Jeanne rolled her eyes and flippantly leaned against one of the walls. "Cereza?"

"Yes?" Bayonetta said as she suddenly appeared beside the other witch, standing once again over her bright purple circle of light. She still held a very happy looking Kirby in her arms.

"They're being stupid again," Jeanne said with a sigh.

Bayonetta looked over at the Queen and the bounty hunter, casually adjusting her glasses. "So they are. Really, this whole thing is just ridiculous."

"Spoiler alert," Jeanne said, giving Zelda a look, "it's possible to get pregnant without being married to a man."

"S-spoiler alert?" Zelda asked, a look of confusion on her face.

"What she means," Bayonetta said, "is that there is more than one way to go about making little heirs. So rather than sitting here having your pity party and acting like this is the end, put your brains together and come up with a solution."

"Seriously," Jeanne said, glancing between the two of them. "You're a magical Queen and one of the most feared warriors in the universe. You have to be able to come up with something."

"Samus is tall and handsome. You could dress her up in drag and make her defeat all your other suitors in a tournament," Bayonetta suggested impishly.

"You have _magic_ ," Jeanne added. "You don't have to dress her up, not that she isn't basically in drag all the time anyway… You could _literally turn her into a man_."

"Or you could turn yourself into a man," Bayonetta chipped in as the witches seemed to be getting excited at all the new magical gender bending permutations.

"Or turn yourselves both into men and make heirs all over the kingdom," Jeanne laughed as she looked at the horrified looks on Samus and Zelda's faces.

"Enough!" Samus shouted, a bit louder than she meant to. "No one is turning anyone into a man… unless one of you two volunteers?" She gave Bayonetta and Jeanne a wicked look. "Come one Jeanne, you've already got the short hair."

The blonde witch frowned. "Not funny. Besides, I hardly think you want me marrying your girlfriend. I'm not sure we'd be able to keep that platonic for very long…"

Zelda frowned and finally stood up, crossing her arms. "If I'm marrying anyone in this room, it's going to be Samus."

"So you agree then?" Bayonetta asked, flashing the Queen a wicked grin. "Marrying Samus is back on the table?"

Zelda frowned, her face turning red as she clearly debated something internally for a minute. "Marrying Samus is the only thing on the table." She grabbed the bounty hunter's gloved hand and looked up into her eyes. "This is my kingdom. I am its Queen, and I make the laws. Suitor search and bloodlines be damned. I love you. I love you more than I've ever loved anyone in my life. And if that means adopting or using some kind of science from your world to make an heir, then that's what we're going to do."

Samus just looked at her. She seemed nervous and a bit skeptical. "You're choosing me over your kingdom?"

"I'm choosing you over antiquated laws and backward theories about bloodlines. I could just as easily marry a man and be killed before I bear a child, and that wouldn't help anyone. You're a good person. And you're strong but also kind. You could do great things for Hyrule."

"So…. wait." Samus looked confused. "We're changing a centuries old law and getting married and… adopting? Like, right away?"

"Um…" Zelda hesitated for a moment.

"Well, all right," Bayonetta cut in, acting characteristically melodramatic as she sashayed over to Samus and Zelda. She held out Kirby to the two of them. "If it means you two get to stay together and rule as gay magical space Queens or whatever, you can adopt my son."

Kirby grinned up at them. "Poyo!"

Zelda's eyes widened as she looked at the pink alien, but Samus just laughed.

The bounty hunter took the squishy pink friend into her hands and held him up over everyone. "Behold! Your future King!"

Zelda looked terribly confused as Jeanne just rolled her eyes.

Samus turned to Bayonetta and said in her most serious voice, "Thank you for entrusting me with your son. I will protect him forever."

Bayonetta also became hyper-serious for moment. "Of course you will. Because he is your son now."

"Poyo!" Kirby shouted throwing his tiny arms into the air and waving them about as Samus and Bayonetta broke their façades and just descended into laughter.

Jeanne just looked over to the very confused Zelda and frowned. "Unfortunately, I think the two of them have bonded."

The Queen looked over to Samus and Bayonetta, still not sure what she was watching and just nodded a couple of times. "I guess they have…?"

"Hey," Jeanne said to Zelda after a while of the two of them watching Samus and Bayonetta's antics. "Cereza wasn't the Elders' first choice for me either," the witch said to the Queen. "But she was my best friend and always had been. And in the end, she was the greatest of all of them and the only one to survive. Trust yourself and your own discretion. That's important if you're going to be a ruler."

Zelda just looked at Jeanne and nodded, wondering how much Jeanne's people had been like her own before they perished.

"She seems like a good one," the blonde woman said with one last look at Samus and Bayonetta before she turned to walk off.


	7. Update

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry to report but after a lot of consideration and deliberation, I have decided to stop uploading stories and updates to FFN. I'm going to be updating on Archive of Our Own exclusively now. I have the same user name over there if you are interested in finding me.

The main difference is that I can disable anonymous comments on AO3 and FFN doesn't give that option. I've received a daily inbox full of reviews on here telling me to kill myself and other very graphic rape-sounding things filled with slurs and telling me why LGBTQ people all deserve to die. And honestly I'm just sick of it. So I'm abandoning FFN because it has no way for users to stop these kinds of messages from coming in, only limited and tedious options to moderate them.

I'll leave my stories up here and archived even if I thoroughly expect the reviews to be overwhelmed with hate messages and spam. But I don't feel like bothering to take the stories down.

It shouldn't have come down to this, but this site has been a sinking ship for years and I'm finally hopping off of it completely. If you want to continue to read my stories, they'll all be up in full over on AO3 and I'll add any over there that are missing.

Hope everyone has a good day and to see you over at AO3.

Thanks for all of your support over the years,

Eevee Nicks


End file.
